Appellate

  • September 02, 2025

    FERC Faces 4th Circ. Heat Over Grid Policy Revamp

    A coalition of utilities and Republican-led states have told the Fourth Circuit that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent overhaul of its regional transmission policy exceeds its authority, while consumer and clean energy advocates said that the agency didn't go far enough.

  • September 02, 2025

    Trump Will Seek Fast-Track High Court Review Of Tariff Suit

    The federal government will seek an expedited appeal and ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court as early as Wednesday, President Donald Trump said Tuesday during a press conference at which he blasted the Federal Circuit's majority opinion determining his emergency tariffs unlawful.

  • September 02, 2025

    Pa. Panel Finds Search Of Phone In Drug Case Improper

    In a precedential ruling, the Pennsylvania Superior Court held that police officers' viewing, reading, and photographing a suspected drug dealer's cellphone constituted an improper search, rejecting prosecutors' claims that investigators merely observed incriminating text messages pop up on the screen without manipulation.

  • September 02, 2025

    3rd Circ. Probes Jurisdiction In Dispute Over NJ US Atty

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday ordered defendants and the federal government to make a case for the appeals court's jurisdiction over a district court's ruling disqualifying acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba from overseeing two cases, saying the court "ordinarily lacks jurisdiction" over pretrial orders in criminal cases.

  • September 02, 2025

    3rd Circ. Wants NJ Justices' Input On Judicial Privacy Law

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to address whether the state's judicial privacy law requires a mental state for purported infractions, a question that could prove crucial for data brokers facing dozens of lawsuits over their alleged violations of the statute.

  • September 02, 2025

    Sysco Keeps Trial Win In Motorcycle Accident Injury Suit

    A Massachusetts appeals panel on Tuesday refused to order a new trial in a man's suit against Sysco Corp. and one of its drivers over a motorcycle accident that resulted in the loss of his leg, leaving in place a jury verdict clearing Sysco and putting the liability on another driver.

  • September 02, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't Stop Dance Teachers From Using 'Inspire' TM

    A charter school failed to convince the Fourth Circuit to block two former teachers from using the name "Inspire" for their dance company, with a panel finding Tuesday that the school's trademark infringement and false advertising claims didn't have enough juice.

  • September 02, 2025

    2nd Circ. Backs X In Arb. Fees In Severance Case

    Courts can't sort out who pays arbitration fees, and employers' refusal to pay such fees isn't a failure to arbitrate, the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday, siding with X in a case accusing the social media platform of owing workers severance.

  • September 02, 2025

    'Never My Intention' To Defy Justices, Judge In NIH Case Says

    A veteran Massachusetts jurist on Tuesday responded to suggestions by two U.S. Supreme Court justices that he had defied the high court by going ahead with a bench trial on two challenges to the Trump administration's cuts to National Institutes of Health research grants, saying he would never intentionally disregard precedent.

  • September 02, 2025

    Ex-Clerk For Philly Judge Joins Eckert Seamans Bench

    An attorney who clerked for more than 12 years for a Philadelphia federal judge plans to use his insight into judicial decision-making to advise clients on litigation matters, following his recent move back to private practice with Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC.

  • August 29, 2025

    Split Fed. Circ. Backs Limits On Presidential Tariff Powers

    The Federal Circuit held that President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs were improperly imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which it said makes no mention of "tariff," "duties" or "tax."

  • August 29, 2025

    11th Circ. Backs CNN Win In Dershowitz Defamation Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit Friday upheld a Florida federal judge's ruling that freed CNN from Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz's $300 million defamation suit, saying Dershowitz presented no evidence that the news network acted with actual malice when covering his defense of President Donald Trump's 2020 impeachment trial.

  • August 29, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Prosecution Laches In Affirming Hyatt Loss

    The Federal Circuit on Friday shot down prolific inventor Gilbert Hyatt's bid to discard a doctrine that can render a patent unenforceable based on delays the owner made during prosecution.

  • August 29, 2025

    8th Circ.'s 'Erie Guess' Affirms Apt. Co.'s $27M Insurance Win

    A partially split Eighth Circuit panel affirmed an apartment complex's $27 million jury award against Travelers Insurance, holding that an expert's testimony about the presence of carcinogenetic soot is sufficient to support the verdict that a fire on the property caused "direct physical loss of or damage to" unburned sections.

  • August 29, 2025

    Mass. Panel Suppresses Child Rape Evidence Due To Delay

    A panel of the Massachusetts' intermediate-level appeals court has decided to suppress evidence of child rape in the form of images on a foster father's cellphone, finding Friday that an officer waited months too long to obtain a search warrant for the device in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

  • August 29, 2025

    Ga. County Stuck With $2.6M Spaceport Bill After Referendum

    A Georgia county remains on the hook for $2.6 million it put down on land it purchased from a Dow Chemical Co. subsidiary in the hopes of building a spaceport before irate citizens killed the effort in a referendum, the Eleventh Circuit said Friday, ruling that the vote couldn't retroactively void the county's contractual obligations.

  • August 29, 2025

    Ohio Appeals Common Carrier, Public Utility Bid For Google

    The Ohio Attorney General's Office said that enforcers have appealed a pair of state court rulings that refused to subject Google to heightened oversight by declaring its search engine a common carrier or a public utility.

  • August 29, 2025

    Justices Urged To Take Home Designer's Copyright Case

    A home designer wants the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his challenge to rulings that let real estate agents off the hook on claims they infringed his copyrights, saying the justices should reexamine the lower courts' analysis of fair use.

  • August 29, 2025

    DC Circ. Backs Biden Gulf Drilling Plan Amid Trump Revamp

    The D.C. Circuit rejected environmental groups' bid to scale back the U.S. Department of the Interior's 2024-2029 offshore oil and gas leasing program, finding the plan satisfied all legal requirements.

  • August 29, 2025

    Judge Newman's Suspension Extended Once Again

    Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's suspension from hearing cases was extended by another year on Friday, in a unanimous opinion by the appeals court's 11 other judges.

  • August 29, 2025

    Split 9th Circ. Revives Suit Over $2.1B Robinhood IPO

    A divided Ninth Circuit on Friday revived a proposed investor class action suit accusing Robinhood Markets Inc. of failing to disclose a downturn in user interest ahead of its $2.1 billion initial public offering, ruling that corporations planning to go public have a duty to disclose material financial information even from quarters that have just ended.

  • August 29, 2025

    Emigrant Seeks High Court Review Of 'Reverse Redlining' Suit

    Emigrant Mortgage Co. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Second Circuit decision upholding a jury verdict that found the company engaged in "reverse redlining" by targeting Black and Latino homeowners with predatory loans, arguing the appeals court broke with other circuits and made it too easy for borrowers to sue and prove disparate impact.

  • August 29, 2025

    Full DC Circ. Asked To Revive Inquiry Into El Salvador Flights

    The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the full D.C. Circuit to review a panel ruling ending a district judge's investigation into the Trump administration's first flights of Venezuelan citizens to El Salvador in March, claiming that the decision undermines the court's fundamental authority to enforce its orders.

  • August 29, 2025

    NJ Casinos Say 9th Circ. Ruling Backs Axing Price-Fixing Suit

    A group of Atlantic City casino-hotel owners have asked the Third Circuit to review a recent decision in the Ninth Circuit involving "nearly identical" antitrust claims related to the same software the defendants in both suits used to allegedly orchestrate inflated room rates across a given area.

  • August 29, 2025

    Del. Gun Ownership Age Limit Deemed Unconstitutional

    A Delaware Superior Court judge on Friday ruled unconstitutional a state law prohibiting 18- to 20-year-olds from buying firearms or using them without the supervision of someone 21 or older, citing in part infringement of the "quintessential" right to self-defense under the state's constitution.

Expert Analysis

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    High Court Must Overrule Outdated Patent Eligibility Doctrine

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    A certiorari petition should directly ask the U.S. Supreme Court to correct its 1972 patent decision in Gottschalk v. Benson, the critical point where patent eligibility law veered from the statutory text toward judicial policymaking, says Robert Greenspoon at Dunlap Bennett.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • How Justices' Ruling Limits Options To Challenge DHS Orders

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    In Riley v. Bondi, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a 30-day deadline for challenging deportation orders begins when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issues a final administrative review order, opening the door for the government to effectively bar circuit court review in future similar cases, says Kevin Gregg at Kurzban Kurzban.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Purdue Case Could Transform Patent Obviousness Analyses

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    If accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Purdue Pharma v. Accord Healthcare — concerning whether Purdue's abuse-deterrent opioid formulation patents were invalid as obvious — could significantly shift how courts weigh secondary considerations in patent obviousness analyses, say attorneys at Lathrop.

  • NM Cyber Ruling Will Spur Litigation As Coverage Remedy

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    In Kane v. Beazley, the New Mexico Court of Appeals recently found that a cyber liability provision insuring security breaches included coverage for funds transfer fraud, implicitly and incorrectly motivating policyholders to commence litigation to avoid contractual limitations on cyber coverages, say attorneys at Zelle.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

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    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • Texas' Cactus Ruling Clarifies 'Produced Water' Rules

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    The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Cactus Water Services v. COG Operating, holding that mineral interest lessees have the rights to water extracted alongside oil and gas, should benefit industry players by clarifying the rules — but it leaves important questions about royalties unresolved, say attorneys at Yetter Coleman.

  • ABA Opinion Makes It A Bit Easier To Drop A 'Hot Potato'

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    The American Bar Association's recent ethics opinion clarifies when attorneys may terminate clients without good cause, though courts may still disqualify a lawyer who drops a client like a hot potato, so sending a closeout letter is always a best practice, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • How Political Divisions Are Stalling Pa. Energy Development

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    Despite possessing the nation's second-largest natural gas reserves and a legacy of energy infrastructure, Pennsylvania faces a fragmented and politically charged path to developing the energy resources it will need in the future, thanks to legislative gridlock, divided public opinion and competing energy interests, says Andrew Levine at Stradley Ronon.

  • How High Court Ruling Can Aid Judgment Enforcement In US

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    In CC/Devas (Mauritius) v. Antrix, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that only two steps are required to keep a foreign sovereign in federal court, making it a little easier for investors to successfully bring foreign states and sovereign-owned and -controlled entities into U.S. courts, says Kristie Blase at Felicello Law.

  • What High Court's Tenn. Trans Care Ruling Means Nationally

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti, upholding a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors, is fairly limited in scope and closely tailored to the specific language of Tennessee's law, but it may have implications for challenges to similar laws in other states, say attorneys at Hall Render.

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